On December 18, the World Historic and Cultural Canal Cities Cooperation Organization (WCCO) held a ceremony in Yangzhou to launch its World Ancient Canal Towns Cooperation Service Platform. The event was attended by academic, business and media representatives from organizations including the Institute of Ecology and Sustainable Development of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Innovation Design Research Center of Shanghai Jiaotong University, World Green Design Organization, Zhejiang Drore Science and Technology Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Coorun Information Technology Co., Ltd. etc, as well as representatives from 30 ancient towns in Jiangsu Province. The representatives discussed and exchanged ideas and suggestions on enhancing the cooperation among the ancient canal towns in the world and setting up a cooperation platform. 

In early September 2017, WCCO held the 2017 World Canal Cities Forum which was attended by representatives from 17 ancient canal towns in China, France and the Netherlands. During the forum, the “Yangzhou Initiative on World Ancient Canal Towns Cooperation” (hereinafter referred to as the “Yangzhou Initiative”) was signed by these representatives. The “Yangzhou Initiative” proposed cooperation amongst canal cities across the world to contribute towards the sustainable development of all ancient canal towns. In addition, the “Yangzhou Initiative” also proposed the active conservation and re-construction of traditional architecture, streets and alleys, the interpretation and inheritance of ancient towns' intangible cultural heritage, as well as respect for and protection of the original ecosystem and interests of the indigenous people in ancient towns.

In order to implement the principles, plans and arrangements advocated by the "Yangzhou Initiative", it was decided that a comprehensive service platform for world ancient canal towns should be built to consolidate high-quality resources, promote the development of WCCO's cooperation mechanism and enhance the development of ancient canal towns around the world.

Led by WCCO, the service platform was jointly initiated by companies, media, universities, research institutes and related international organizations. It aims to assume a global perspective with world canals at its core and harness the advantages of the Internet, information technology and computer technology to connect ancient canal towns around the world. Members of the platform shall enjoy international exchange opportunities, commercial resources, rich experience in the construction of ancient towns, and market specialization services. On the other hand, service enterprises on this platform shall have opportunities to participate in the conservation, planning and development of ancient towns, as well as provide operational promotion and investment services to them.

The world has been made beautiful by the canals, and in return, the canals bask in the glory of the ancient towns which line them. Ancient towns participating in this meeting had their beginnings and fortunes strongly tied to the canals and the canals had also bred unique cultures in each of them. During the meeting, the platform had commissioned the operator to sign cooperation agreements with some of the ancient canal towns. Chairman of WCCO, Mr. Zhu Minyang, commented that the development of the canals and the ancient canal towns require concerted efforts from the entire society. In the spirit of cooperating, sharing and win-win, WCCO serves the canal towns and cities by integrating various resources and matching the demand and supply sides. He hoped that the establishment of the platform shall effectively provide high quality and cost-effective services for the development of ancient canal towns, thereby enhancing the development levels of these towns.